Poetry Friday

I like this poem because it reminds me of my days in the classroom. Ah, those mornings when you are still groggy and the caffine is just kicking in and the kids start to trickle in the door and there's always the one who asks...

Did I Miss Anything?
Tom Wayman

Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 percent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I’m about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 percent

Finish reading the poem here.

What my Blog is Rated

Alternatively, this post could have been called "you're not nearly as hard core as you think you are"

Poetry Friday (a bit early)

I'm posting on Thursday afternoon because I know that with everyone coming in tomorrow I'll forget to post. Anyway, I've been reading Derrick Jensen this week and feeling pretty rotten about civilization. So instead of blowing up dams and freeing the salmon, I give you a Robert Frost poem. I am pretty sure that Frost and Jensen are kindred spirits here...

The Times Table

More than halfway up the pass
Was a spring with a broken drinking glass,
And whether the farmer drank or not
His mare was sure to observe the spot

Read the whole poem here.

Hello Dolly!

There's an interesting discussion of the American Girl dolls over at Read Roger. I remember coveting an American Girl doll after we visited a cousin that had one. I wanted the pretty Victorian one. My parents had a good laugh at the price tag and I soon moved on to wanting some other overpriced, slickly marketed toy. The thing that drives me really crazy about these dolls are the parents who shell out the money for them and then appease their conscience by saying that they are educational. If you are that concerned with education, do some freaking research and find something better and historically accurate. Now, I played with Barbies and I had a Cabbage Patch Kid. My parents were more concerned with the price of a toy than it's social/political message. I don't think it made much of a difference in my creative play. It's just that if, as a parent, you are going to be concerned with that stuff, than do it well at least. Buying American Girl dolls because you think they are educational is just lazy.

Poetry Fridays

Despite my massive failure with project 365, I attempting a new project: Poetry Fridays. To sum it up, every Friday I am going to post a poem, or a few lines of a poem (I'm trying to follow copyright regulations here) or write about a poetry book I've read. Anyway, the point is Fridays from now on are devoted to poetry. Anyone who wants to join me in this is welcome. (Erin , this means you, 'cause I know you'll like this). So in honor of father's day I give you...

Locks

By Neil Gaiman

We owe it to each other to tell stories,
as people simply,
not as father and daughter.
I tell it to you for the hundredth time:

"There was a little girl, called Goldilocks,
for her
hair was long and golden,
and she was walking in the Wood and she saw —
"

"— cows." You say it with certainty,
remembering the
strayed heifers we saw in the woods
behind the house, last month...

Read the entire poem here.

It's not all I think about but...

The other week I posted that I wanted the job of the Food Network's librarian. While I still covet that position I've added a new one to my list: The Library of Congress' s newly created post of National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

In other library news, a Miami appeals court heard arguments in the Vamos a Cuba case. If you haven't heard about this, an injunction was requested by the ACLU against the Miami-Dade school board for ordering the removal of the children’s book Vamos a Cuba and its English-language counterpart A Visit to Cuba from elementary school libraries. The injunction has been upheld so far and the books remains on the shelf. We'll see for how long.

I touched Harry Potter

So last night I went with Michelle to Blackcat to see The Pipettes. Now I am pretty used to going to shows where I don't really know the band. My music philosophy is pretty much "if Michelle and Erin like 'em, I'm probably going to too." And I always have a good time. But last night's show was extra super fun. I really likes the band and for the first time ever, I managed to be in the front and actually see the stage. And the kid from Harry and the Potters was standing next to us. I came home and told Josh I bumped into Harry Potter and he thought I had finally lost it. Oh well, it totally made my weekend.